The constraints which limit an organism's time, energy, and information-processing abilities pose similar questions concerning optimal behavior in nature for ecological and in operant environments for psychologists. I have proposed a series of experiments that were inspired by ecological hypotheses about optimal foraging behavior. These experiments were designed to test two psychological hypotheses about learned performance: conservation theory and consumption theory. These experiments employ operant simulations of foraging behavior in which the predator is a pigeon and its prey is access to mixed grain. These experiments will generate a data base amenable to analysis by both molar and molecular theories of learned performance equilibrium. These experiments will evaluate and extend the generality of psychological theories of learned performance equilibrium by examining them in a more complex and more ecologically valid context. The long-term objectives are to better understand complex foraging and feeding behavior as a model for predicting behavioral efficiency, and learning as one component of a more general regulatory mechanism, both of which contribute to human survival behavior.